Hearts 1 Kilmarnock 0
(Scottish League Cup Final, Hampden Park, Oct 27th 1962)

In May of 2003 finally Tom "Tiny" Wharton retired as a referee.  I remembered this name, but from where? Then it came to me ... the 1962-63 Scottish League Cup Final.... and why ....read on.!

Their were 51,280 in attendance at Hampden. Killie got off to a bright start but lacked penetration in the opposing penalty box. Hearts took the lead half way through the first half when Hamilton sent over a nice cross for Norrie Hamilton to head home.

Frank Beattie then forced out a great save from Gordon Marshall (our former keepers dad).

Killie looked the sharper team in the second half as they tried to pull the match back to all square, but were frequently without imagination in their play.

As the seconds ticked down to the final whistle, Jim Richmond sent a free-kick into the Hearts box and Frank Beattie rose above everyone to head home the equalising goal (see below).

Then to all in attendance they looked down in astonishment as Tom "Tiny" Wharton awarded a free kick to the Edinburgh side.

Our Killie players were furious, Wharton then consulted with his linesman and despite no flag from him he proceeded to award Hearts a freekick and chalk Killie's "goal" off!!

Had it been a hand-ball perhaps? Willie Waddell told the press that Beattie never touched the ball that way, and that  Wharton had been miles away from the play.

Warton was never forgiven by the Killie faithful and was always subject to numerous boo-ing's upon his refereeing returns to Rugby Park.

Kilmarnock: McLaughlan, Richmond, Watson, O'Connor, McGrory, Beattie, Brown, Black, Kerr, McIlroy & McInally.

Attendance: 51,280
 

A Hearts View...

Back in the 50s and 60s, Hampden was virtually a second home for Hearts. Mike Smith looks back to the 1962 League Cup triumph, which marked the end of a glorious era for the club.

Hearts have had numerous ‘spats’ with Kilmarnock over the years. It was Killie who won the league championship at Tynecastle on the last day of a fateful 1964/65 season when the Ayrshire men won 2-0 to pip Hearts themselves for the title on goal average. In 1982, Killie thrashed relegated Queen of the South 6-0 to claim the second promotion spot to the Premier League ahead of a Hearts team who lost 1-0 at home to Motherwell on another last game of the season tale of woe. Similarly, Killie defeated what amounted to a Celtic reserve team on the final day of the 2000/2001 season to edge Hearts out of a U.E.F.A. Cup place. If all this sounds like fortune has favoured Kilmarnock over the years, then it’s worth looking at what happened when the two clubs met in the 1962 League Cup Final at Hampden Park.

 

The glorious Hearts side that dominated Scottish football for much of the 1950s was beginning to break up in the early 1960s. In the summer of 1962, just four years after Hearts' record breaking championship winning season, players such as Dave Mackay, Alex Young, Jimmy Wardhaugh, Alfie Conn and Willie Bauld had all left Tynecastle for good. Manager Tommy Walker was in the process of rebuilding the team. The new breed of Hearts player saw the likes of Roy Barry, Willie Wallace and the gifted Willie Hamilton – signed for a ridiculously low fee from Middlesbrough – charged with maintaining Hearts place as one of the top sides in the country.

 

Hamilton, in particular, had set Tynecastle alight with some dazzling displays and Hearts, after a difficult start to season 1962/63, had reached the final of the League Cup, a trophy they had won three times in the previous decade. Opponents Kilmarnock, however, had played like a team that believed its name was on the trophy. Unbeaten in the competition, Killie had beaten competition favourites Rangers in the semi-final and so a crowd of 51,280 turned up at Hampden on a miserable October afternoon of wind and heavy rain to witness a game to remember.

 

Hearts: Marshall; Polland; Holt; Cumming; Barry; Higgins; Wallace; Paton; Davidson; W. Hamilton; J. Hamilton.

 

Hearts made a nervous start. In the opening minutes, keeper Gordon Marshall tangled with Killie forward Black and ‘Iron Man’ John Cumming cleared the danger. Black threatened again shortly after and it seemed the Hearts players were struggling with the heavy Hampden pitch. It took the maroons some time to make an impression with Norrie Davidson creating Hearts first real chance with a rasping twenty yard shot which Killie keeper McLaughlin tipped over. This encouraged Tommy Walker’s men and the enigmatic Willie Hamilton began to revel in the huge space that Hampden had to offer.

 

In the 27^th minute Hammy produced a piece of magic befitting a major cup final. Collecting a long ball from Willie Wallace, Hamilton deftly controlled the ball, skipped past Killie defender Jackie McGrory and raced in on goal. He looked up and delivered a glorious pass into the penalty box where Norrie Davidson thrashed the ball past McLaughlin to give Hearts the lead.

 

It was a brilliant goal, created by the magic of Hamilton and finished by the guile of Davidson. Against the run of play it may have been but it transformed the game and Willie Hamilton tormented the Killie defence thereafter, although Gordon Marshall had to save brilliantly from Frank Beattie and Davie Holt made a crucial tackle on McIlroy following a slip from Roy Barry just before half

 

Killie’s Jackie McInally – father of former Celtic and Bayern Munich player Alan – was injured during that first half. This was the era before substitutes so McInally limped bravely on. Hearts took advantage and dominated much of the second half and could – indeed should – have added to the one goal they had. Then, with just seconds remaining and the Hearts fans whistling at referee Tom ‘Tiny’ Wharton urging him to blow for full time, Kilmarnock launched one last desperate attack.

 

Richmond floated a free kick into the Hearts penalty box. Frank Beattie rose above everyone to head the ball past the flailing arms of Gordon Marshall and into the net. It appeared Kilmarnock had tied the game at the death. Blue and white shirted players forgot their tiredness and danced for joy. Hearts players slumped to the sodden Hampden pitch.

 

But…..referee Wharton was not signalling towards the centre circle. He was giving a free kick to Hearts. The referee had spotted an infringement that no one else appeared to have noticed. Furious Killie players urged the official to consult his linesman, which, to his credit, he did. But his decision remained the same. Free kick to Hearts. Wharton believed Beattie had handled the ball as the cross came in.